Book Covers

I made books covers for both of my parents. My dad's has an embroidered train on it. I made my mom's first and it was difficult because I used this crazy two sided interfacing. It was way to plastic-y and ended up ruining my sewing machine needle. Then I used regular interfacing for my dad's and it worked great. I used double folded seam binding for the inside flap (where you slip the book's arms in). 

Cool John is modeling for me. It was his birthday and he was super sick, but helped me anyways. Thanks dude! 

Dream Catcher

Made dream catchers with the kids at the after school program. This is the example I made. Kind of boring.

Sock Animal Zoo

The sock animal class last monday went well. We started a week late because I got stranded in Texas due to a flight cancelation on my way home from Albuquerque two weeks ago. While seeing my grandparents and especially my grandpa for the first time in a long while was really hard for me, I did get to snag a bunch of old socks! This sock elephant is made from Dick Bowen's socks, so lets call him Gramps. My sister made me the sock monkey, Honz, a couple years ago. She is super talented. 

And here they all are together: 

Friends!

I will be adding more to this sock animal zoo soon. I'm also working on gifts for my parents. I kind of messed them up today, so don't expect posts on them too soon. 

Sock Dog

I made this little guy last night, while watching Lost with my roommate. I got the pattern from Sock and Glove, by Miyako Kanamori. It's an adorable book, you can pick it up at Kinokuniya along with many other way too cute crafting books coming out of Japan. 

This is a dog made from some old socks. I think I can do better. I'll try to make more sock/glove animals this weekend while I'm in Albuquerque with my family.

 

We're doing sock/glove animals at the after school program monday. (That is if my plane isn't delayed getting back to New York). I'm worried this project may be too hard. I'm not sure how to simplify it. 

jellyfish goes on vacation!

My best bud sent me these photos of the jellyfish I made him doing all sorts of awesome activities in Japan. It was the best email surprise ever. Thanks Nate!

He's thrash'n

beer and tomatoes? silly jellyfishes

Clothespin Doll

I'm not too excited about this craft. It's just yarn wrapped around a clothespin. No glue, just knots. I have googly eyes, but instead decided to draw on the eyes. I'm teaching this project on Monday. The green scarf holds down her hair, but what if it's warm outside? I'm not sure how to hold down the yarn hair with out making the dolls wear a scarf. Any suggestions?

I didn't really put too much thought into this. I made her at 1am last night and took the picture this morning. Now I'm off to work, so it was a rushed job. Look forward to book covers and sock creatures!

Embroidery Shmroidery

Embroidery is a skill most people would find super easy if they've ever done even a little sewing. Unfortunately, many people never try it. I just learned a couple years ago. The first thing to try is a stitch sampler. This serves as a quick reference guide for all the stitches you know. Mine's pretty small, but I have the straight stitch, back stitch, loop stitch, split stitch, stem stitch, blanket stitch, french knots and some lazy daisy pedals. The back stitch is the one I use most often, because it creates a solid outline.

The carrot was my first embroidery project. I used a Aunt Martha iron transfer. They're great if your into adorable embroidered tea towels and day of the week cats. Usually with embroidery you embroider over guide lines that are on your canvas/cloth. 

The bird is a sample of over embroidery. This is just what it sounds like, embroidery over a printed image. Pretty simple and looks awesome. 

The last project is an embroidered picture of my dog, Yaffa! I drew a picture of her on paper, then traced the reversed image with a heat transfer  marker (there are also heat transfer pencils). Heat transfer markers are rad, because you can embroider your own designs. Her bandana is filled in with a satin stitch, but the rest of her is made with the back stitch.

nice.